


Untitled

by orphan_account



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: AU, Gen, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-08-17
Packaged: 2018-07-22 04:11:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7419271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I wrote this off of a post I saw on tumblr. "What if when you turned 18, you stopped aging until you met your soulmate?"<br/>Then I thought "What if someone kept killing their soulmate to live forever? That led me to Ashildr, and here we are.<br/>It's a soulmate AU with Ashildr as the main character.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Not Everything Goes As Planned

**Author's Note:**

> I want to say thank you the awesome tumblr users @betaavailable and @brason4life for beta'ing this story!

Norway, 1043

Ashildr hated blood. It always got on her hands and clothes and stuck to everything as it dried. Her hands squelched as she wrung the blood and grit and soap out of the shirt she was washing. It belonged to her brother-in-law, Jacques. He'd stained it while hunting. 

She was thinking about Jacques as she washed the shirt. When you turned eighteen, you stopped ageing, until you found someone. Your kjæreste. Your soulmate. Ashildr was still eighteen, even though she had been born twenty seven years ago. 

She sighed as she examined her hands. They were red, chapped, and had blood under the short nails. That would take some scrubbing to get out. 

Picking up her bundle of wet, washed clothing in one hand, she trudged back up the beach toward the village. Inwardly, she was screaming at how boring her life was. She wasn't permitted to go on the voyages because of her "fragility" and her brother had just found Jacques and was ageing again, and here she was, washing blood off clothes while she could be out learning about the world, or reading, or finding her other half, or... or anything!

All she wanted was to escape the village so small it didn't even have a name.  

Ashildr was so engrossed in her thoughts of the world that she was missing that she failed to notice the stealthy feet sneaking up behind her. 

Her arms were pinned behind her back and a leg swept her feet out from under her. She felt a sharp cold touch at her neck as a bag was put over her head. 

"That is the finest edge that can be made on the best blade you may ever see. Don't move an inch."

Ashildr was grateful that she had taken the time to learn English. The strangers were obviously from the Isles. The voice was certainly male, and sounded old. The hands on her wrists felt leathery to the touch and covered in rough bits, like old scars or cuts. Her father's hands were like that. It was from the salt air and the little nicks from rope and knives. 

Even without the warning to stay put, she would have sat perfectly still. The knife was pressed hard on her jugular. 

"I'm going to take this knife off your throat. We're going to walk toward my ship, and we'll talk there. Don't try anything."

It was as if her prayers had been answered. Someone had come to take her away from the village. Admittedly, she had pictured having more choice in the manner of her departure, but this was she had wanted. Right?


	2. Things Change Quickly

Ashildr was marched toward the ship, tripping twice on loose stones. Both times, the hands that marched her along caught her and roughly pushed her up again. The walk felt long. At last she felt freezing water brush her feet and her captor stopped. 

"I am going to lift you into this boat. Be careful. If you try to get away, you will fall in, and I'm sure you know how deep and cold it gets. Your hands are tied. Don't try anything."

Ashildr went to nod, then remembered that there was a blade somewhere near her head. "Yes."

"You speak English?" a new voice asked. 

"Hold your tongue, Sid," the first voice said. "We'll wait until we're on the ship to question her. For now, you don't say another word."

"Yessir," said the man who Ashildr now knew as Sid. 

"Not another word I said!"

"Sorry sir."

"Shut your gob!"

Sid stopped talking. 

She was lifted into a small boat and set on the bottom. There was about a centimeter of water inside, and she squeaked in surprise. 

A wind had picked up between when she left the beach and when she had been caught. The waves jostled the small craft and the two rowers were not very well in sync with one another. Ashildr resisted the urge to shout the rhythm at them.  She may have been a girl, but was born and raised as a Viking, and she knew how to row. These oafs had no idea how it was done. 

They almost tipped over, shaking her out of her thoughts. 

"No, Sid! You have to stay in rhythm! Stop that!" 

They eventually got to a ship and were lifted in on a rope. It evidently a large vessel. The trip was long. The rope had been tied around Ashildr's waist and was chafing at her and making her dress ride up. 

"If I take off your blindfold, will you sit nice and talk to us? If you're good, we might send you home. If you're not-"

"Francis. Stop playing the fearsome kidnapper." This was different. A female voice. "Just take the bag off her head." 

The sack covering her eyes was whisked away and she blinked at the light. When her eyes had adjusted, she saw a motley crowd. 

They were all men, except for the woman who had just spoken. Some had skin darker than any she'd ever seen, and some were as pale as her. There were Gallicans and Norsemen, English and people who didn't look like anyone she'd ever seen before. A few were older looking while most were clearly still eighteen. They were all staring at her. 

No one spoke. 

"All right," said the man who had caught her. "I'm taking her belowdecks, and if anyone disturbs me, they'll be cooking for a week." She still couldn't see his face as he was behind her. 

She was nudged toward a hold on the deck with an open cover, and stairs leading down. Ashildr descended uncertainly. She had never been on a ship with stairs. Her father's ship just had a ladder leading to a cavity in the ship that was filled with hammocks and barely big enough for her to stand up in. 

The stranger pushed her through a door and shut it. 

"You can turn around now," the voice said, filled with amusement. 

She turned slowly. The man was tall, but not as tall as her brother Stein. He wore a dark red tunic with black trousers and brown knee-high leather boots. She looked up at his face. He was older than she had thought, with salt-and-pepper hair. He was obviously in command though.

Ashildr surprised herself by asking "Why did you take me?"

"Why do you think dear?"

It was clearly not to answer her prayers to leave the village, but that had happened anyway. 

"To ransom me? Are you pirates? And who the hell are you even?"

"Inquisitive I see. Let's see. Yes, not technically, and I'm Francis."

"How did you learn English? I thought I would have to brush up on my Norse," he added. 

Ashildr turned red. "Well. Um. I read?" Her voice got smaller as the short sentence went on. 

Francis raised his eyebrows. "You can read? In English too?"

"I taught myself. And we captured some English monks a while ago."

Francis looked at her with respect. "Well. What's this highly literate girl's name?"

"Ashildr."

"Welcome to this ship, Ashildr. You'll be staying for a while."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to add this to the last chapter, but thank you so much to the tumblr users @betaavailable and @brason4life for betaing this work.

Ashildr spent the next week on the ship alternating between cooking, mending things, and sleeping. After the first meal cooked by Sid, she had demanded to take over making the food. 

She had never gotten seasick, which was something to thank the gods for. 

On the third day Ashildr worked up the courage to talk to the only other female on the ship. 

"Hello."

"What do you want?"

The woman was sitting on a pile of rope while looking at some sort of map, which she hastily put away when she saw Ashildr looking at it. 

This had been a bad idea. Ashildr started to back away. "If you're busy I can-"

"I'm sorry. Didn't mean to act so rude. It's just... Francis would have my hide if I let anyone know where he plans to go. He's funny in that way. Never wants anyone but me to plot our course for him. I'm Isabelle by the way." Her speech sounded slightly odd. Maybe it was just the speed of her speech combined with her strong Gallic accent. The girl spoke faster than Ashildr could think. 

"Ashildr," she managed. 

"Nice to meet you."

And that was that. Somehow Isabelle became her friend. 

On the seventh day of her journey on the ship, she was talking with Isabelle  on the stairs to the lower deck while the men rowed through a patch of calm. Somehow the topic got around to families. Isabelle said that Francis was her twin, but he had found his love ten years ago, while she had stayed young and alone. His wife had been kidnapped by bandits three years ago. He had spent the time trying to make enough money to pay her ransom.  Ashildr wondered what it was like, to love someone so much that you would spend years of your life trying to get them back. And to resort to kidnappings and piracy to do it!

"There's no tragic backstory behind my family. My mother and father don't talk much about their life before marriage. He's a warrior and hunter, she's our town's healer. My brother Stein is a year younger than me, but he's fallen in love and looks about five years older. He brought Jacques home a year ago after a raid. He captured him in battle, and they fell in love. Bit cliché."

"How old are you?"

"Eighteen. Haven't found my other half yet." Ashildr laughed bitterly. "Not sure it's worth it."

"I meant how many years you've lived."

"Twenty seven. Born in 1016."

"I'm thirty six. Will your family miss you?"

"I don't know." It was an honest answer. 

"Francis is going to have you write a ransom note soon. Something along the lines of 'It's Ashildr, I love you so very much, please pay the nice pirates so I can come home.' It'll be before tomorrow for sure."

"I don't want to leave."

"What? No one else has wanted to stay before. Did they hurt you or something? Who does that to a daughter? To anyone? Do we need to pretend you ran away? Or were killed when you wouldn't cooperate?"

"Slow down. They treated me fine.  I just... I was afraid nothing would ever happen to me there. Nothing bad, but also nothing good." Ashildr hadn't told that to anyone before. Something about this talkative, brown-eyed girl made her open up. 

"Oh. All right then."

At first Francis was unwilling to let her stay, but she flatly refused to write the ransom note, and he was forced to give in. 

"An extra set of fingers could come in handy. No pun intended," he said, more to himself than to Ashildr. "All right. You'll have to make yourself useful, but-" He hesitated and took a deep breath before his next words. "You can stay."


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so veryveryveryvery much to my betas. They're on tumblr as @brason4life and @betaavailable.

They stopped at a port town in the south, and Isabelle was bouncing off the walls with excitement. 

"We can go so many places, and go shopping, and see so much, and party, and meet people, and-"

"Shut your mouth Isabelle."

Isabelle stopped talking, looking a bit hurt. 

"Sorry. I just don't really like people. I'll come though."

Isabelle nodded and they both went back to fixing a tear in the spare sails. Ashildr went to look out the trapdoor There was a smudge on the horizon. Could it be? Yes! It was land!

"I see it!"

"What?" Isabelle demanded. "Let me see."

They ran up the stairs and hung over the side of the ship. The crew watched them. 

After an hour, the ship reached the harbour gates. 

"We just have to wait to give them coin for letting us berth there and open the gates," Francis said, answering a questioning look from Ashildr. 

They waited an hour, then two. 

"Are you sure they'll open them?"

"Yes. I think so. Maybe."

"I vote we go ashore and see what's going on." The speaker was one of the crew who Ashildr didn't know. He was short and redheaded. 

"I'll send you and Grant in the rowboat."

A man who was presumably Grant made a noise in protest. Francis just looked at him and he worked with the redhead to get the rowboat ready. They each strapped on a pair of knives. The boat made a large splash when it was placed in the water. The men climbed in and began to row. They went to the side of the gates and tied up the boat next to another with peeling paint. Grant climbed over the fence, shortly followed by the redhead, whom Ashildr later learned was named Leidur. They vanished from sight. 

The crew waited in tense silence for the men to return. When they did not, the crew began to whisper among themselves. Francis started to look worried as well. The frown on his face increased tenfold when a man waddled out of the boathouse with a piece of paper in hand and a smug look on his face. 

"Send one representative for your vessel and one only. I would speak with them."

An intense yet hushed argument broke out over who should go. Francis settled it by proclaiming that he would go. 

"I will speak with you. I have one favour to request though."

The portly man nodded. 

"Would you come over in a boat so that I may speak with you without the interference of my crew? We have but one craft small enough, and it is tied up next to you."

Ashildr wondered why he was so formal in his speech. 

"I fear for my safety with such a large crew such as yours. I will send for a large ship to bring you all ashore so your case may be dealt with."

"I swear on my word as captain of the Aurora that we will not harm you."

The man had disappeared into the building he had come from. 

Ashildr privately wondered why he was so afraid of a small unarmed ship.   
................................................................  
An enormous ship sailed out of the port's harbour. It had what looked like fifty armed soldiers aboard. What was the danger from less than twenty unarmed men?   
Ashildr realised they must have been attacked recently. There was no other explanation for it. Her musings were cut to a halt when the ship slowed beside the Aurora. They threw a rope over between the ships and beckoned for the crew to board. 

"We'll dock your ship for you." It was an order, not an offer. 

Ashildr and her companions hesitantly headed over the side of the ship and toward the soldiers.

They were hustled belowdecks into a small room. It was very crowded. There was barely enough room for Ashildr to lift her arms up to run her hands through her hair. For a long time nobody said a word. She didn't know how long they sat in that room, but it heated up fast. The men all took off their shirts while Isabelle and Ashildr stood in misery. They had been there for hours. The room smelled like sweat and heat. Isabelle swayed. 

"Careful. You might fall."

"I'm fine," Isabelle said in a voice that indicated that she was most definitely not fine. 

"Just breathe."

Isabelle was red with heat. Her normally tanned skin matched Ashildr's red dress. 

"Isabelle? Are you sure you're okay?"

Isabelle didn't answer. She stumbled again. 

"Make some room for her to sit down! And call for help! They can't refuse to help her."

The men obliged by scooting away from her, allowing enough space for Isabelle to sit and lean against the wall. Ashildr started shouting for help. 

"There's a sick girl here! She needs help!"

"Mmnotsick," Isabelle muttered. She really didn't look good. Her face was red and her small body was soaked with sweat. 

After what seemed an eternity of fruitless yelling, the door opened. 

A woman stepped in. She pushed through the hot knot of bodies to get to Isabelle. When she put her hand on Isabelle's forehead, her eyes went wide. So did Isabelle's. They stared at each other. It reminded her of how Stein and Jacques looked at each other, or her mother and father. Then it hit her. Isabelle was the woman's other half. 

Her soulmate.


	5. Chapter 5

The woman scooped up Isabelle and carried her out of the room. Isabelle seemed to have forgotten all about being overheated and was staring at the woman. They left without closing the door and hurried down the hall.

Ashildr edged out the door. She walked in the opposite direction that the woman had taken. The hall bent left and then right.  There were two doors along the way, but they were both locked. She came to a third door, which was ajar. She peered into the room within. Inside, Francis was being held to the wall by two guards as he talked to the fat man who had met them at the harbour. 

"Where is my crew?" Francis asked coldly. You have taken them 'into custody' and they are missing. How am I to know they aren't in danger?"

"You have no choice."

Ashildr resisted the urge to run into the room and tackle the man. That would not be helpful, she reminded herself. 

Instead she crept further along the hall. She came to a set of stairs and cautiously poked her head up onto the deck. 

Ashildr hastily ducked back down. There was a guard right there! She heard his feet clomping away as she cautiously peeked up again. He was facing away from her. He looked lazy. He walked slowly, dragging his feet, but as another man turned the corner, he walked faster and held his head higher. 

Probably just walking to keep his job. Or maybe to show off that shiny armour. It's bright enough that he obviously shined it last night or the day before. The helmet alone must have taken an hour! The polish is expensive, but he doesn't use it well. Cares about appearances, not hard work. Same with his sword. His regulation haircut is a bit jagged in the back, suggesting he's not used to cutting it like that. His beard has been trimmed well, so he has a mirror, and cares about his looks, and isn't just lazy about his haircut. A man like him wants to look good. Joined the militia recently, and to look good, not out of a sense of duty or honour. Something bothered her about the man. No, not about him, it was something related to him. She would figure it out later. 

When she passed the room where they had been kept, it was locked. She banged on the door. 

"Hello? It's Ashildr."

"Ashildr! Stay away and be careful!"

"If you're caught, we're all dead."

"Dead?"

"They said we would be burnt at sunset for piracy. We answer to the descriptions of a famous gang of pirates around here. I thought that if I was caught for piracy, it would at least be something I actually did!"

Ashildr padded down the hall, boots softly rasping against each other as she walked, trying to figure out what to do next. She also was trying to work out what she had seen in the guard. It felt like she had it, and then it slipped away again. It was really frustrating. 

In this direction, the hallway turned right first. 

As she walked along the hall, she saw that it turned left in about ten feet. She peeked around the corner and saw something she never wanted to see again. 

The woman had Isabelle pressed against the wall and they were kissing. Eugh. That was a thing Ashildr could go her entire life without seeing again. Eugh. She backed up so quickly that she almost fell. 

So she was stuck. On one side, the room where Francis was, and on the other... Ashildr didn't even want to think about it. She thought of ways to get out. There were two doors that might or might not have people inside, and the fat man might leave, and someone might come check on the prisoners. That left one option. She hated that option. 

And there was something about that man! What was it?

She coughed, then peered around the corner. Nope. She shut her eyes. She tried again. They were still oblivious.

She was going to have to be more obvious. 

Her boots made enormous clomping noises as she stomped down the hall toward them. She sneezed. Maybe she was laying it on a little thick? 

Finally. They looked away from each other as she came into view. 

"If you're both done?"

Isabelle turned an interesting shade of pink while the woman just looked confused. 

"Ashildr!" Isabelle whispered. "How did you get out?"

"Door wasn't locked. You left it open," she said, indicating the other woman. 

Her skin was even darker than Isabelle's and she had brown eyes and hair. Ashildr looked her up and down. She was still young. No petticoats or other obstructions. She does work. Hard work. Probably on the ship here. How did she get on and why do they let her stay? I know Isabelle is allowed on the Aurora because she's related to Francis, but how did this woman get on? Men are definitely not in the habit of letting ladies on their ships. 

"Oops. Sorry about that. I'm Katherine."

Isabelle said something, but Ashildr wasn't listening. She knew why the guard had stuck in her mind. 

"Is there anywhere we can hide to make a plan?"


End file.
